Naperville therapy dog helps kids read, feel confident

Ellie Rose and Renee Cole exude serenity as they stride through the halls of Peterson Elementary School to a hero's welcome.

“We get our Ellie fix!” an office worker exclaims.

“She's a rock star!” the principal declares.

“Please come to our class sometime,” a student begs.

Only one child's greeting gives away Ellie Rose's identity.

“Puppy's here!” a young boy says of the 107-pound Bernese mountain dog who just won national recognition for her special role as a therapy dog.

Despite all the love and attention she's receiving as a pet who shines in service to students, Ellie Rose remains as cool and collected as her handler, Naperville resident and Peterson Elementary parent Renee Cole.

“She's just a really gentle, calm, obedient dog,” said Cole, a 50-year-old stay-at-home mom. “She pretty much does everything I ask of her because of her loyalty to me.”

Ellie Rose's poise and assistance to students at Peterson helped her win an online voting contest sponsored by Pets Best Insurance to select the best therapy dog working in a school or library.

For the past two years, Ellie Rose has paid weekly visits to the school, rotating among classrooms so she can spend time with all students.

She attends reading classes with general education students, such as those in the fifth-grade class of Cole's daughter Catelyn. And Ellie sprawls on the floor to socialize with special-needs students, including those in Meghan Van Dorn's class.

“When Ellie visits our classroom, she provides so much more than just blossoming students' literacy skills,” Van Dorn wrote in her nomination essay. “During their time together, Ellie teaches my students compassion, support, patience, sharing and, above all, friendship.”

That letter propelled Ellie Rose to the finals of the contest, said Chris Middleton, president of Pets Best.

On a recent visit to Peterson, Ellie greeted with a big, wet kiss Jyliene Aleman, a third-grader in Van Dorn's special-needs class who gets chatty when the dog arrives.

“I feel happy,” Jyliene says as she sits on the classroom floor next to a sprawled-out Ellie and takes the prized responsibility of handing the mountain dog a treat. Her classmates can't all express their appreciation for Ellie in words, but their teacher says their actions - hugs, smiles and simply wanting to be close to the dog - show it just as well.

“Ellie Rose's effect in the Peterson Elementary classroom was very profound in terms of her ability to interact with those children, make them feel good about themselves and improve their learning,” Middleton said.

Once Ellie was chosen as one of eight national finalists, her fans at Peterson took to Facebook to vote their favorite four-legged friend into first place. Peterson families - and their relatives a state away in Iowa or nations away in India - gave Ellie Rose 5,229 votes, enabling her to beat runner-up Buttons, a therapy dog from Hazle Township in Pennsylvania.

The entire school piled into the hallways on a recent Tuesday to celebrate Ellie Rose's honor with a victory parade.

“She has been so inspiring - the two of them have - for all of our kids,” Peterson Principal Terri Russell said about the therapy reading team of Ellie and Cole. “Ellie doesn't judge anybody. For our little struggling readers, they'll read to Ellie where they won't read to their teacher.”

To become a certified therapy dog, Ellie had to pass a test of her own, proving she knows commands such as “leave it” and can interact with all sizes of humans without barking, getting startled or startling anyone else.

“If you miss one thing, you fail the test,” Cole said. “So the kids love that. She has to be an A-plus, straight-A student.”

Ellie aced the test and earned a Tail Waggin' Tutor certification from Therapy Dogs International as well as a Canine Good Citizen certification from the American Kennel Club.

Now she has the title of Books & Barks award winner to add to that list.

The “books” part fits well. The titles read in the classrooms Ellie visits include “Bob the Builder,” “Aunt Eater Loves A Mystery” and “Glow-in-the-dark Night Sky Book.”

But Ellie has a couple of books of her own.

Shutterfly photo books Cole created in honor of the award winner grace a small coffee table in the school office. “Ellie Rose: My True Story as a Therapy Dog” and “Ready, Set Learn: Peterson Elementary 2014-15” are titles in which Ellie is the star.

Ellie Rose is Cole's third Bernese mountain dog, and her school visits are making a treasured memory for Catelyn, Cole's only child.

Ellie and Cole also spend time once a week at Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, providing comfort to patients. The duo also had their first taste of volunteer therapy work at a nursing home in Oswego that cares for patients with dementia.

That's another reason Ellie Rose and Cole are deserving of recognition, contest officials said.

“Pets actually provide a huge amount of benefit at a physiological level, not to mention just emotional support,” Middleton said. “To have a pet come in and offer unconditional affection and love is a pretty powerful thing.”

Being a therapeutic presence can be tiring for dog and handler, but it's Cole's way of giving back and bringing happiness to others.

Winning the Books & Barks contest also means Ellie and Cole are giving back $1,000 in prize money to the school to be put toward literacy programs and $500 to Bernese Friends Worldwide Rescue.

But the real prize is the value of the visits from Ellie and Cole to the special-needs students Van Dorn teaches.

“The kids just love seeing Ellie,” she said. “And even though not all of the kids are able to express it, it's so evident.”